San Francisco: NeXT CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated his design and communications artistry (as well the strengths of the company's computer) at his NeXTWORLD Expo keynote presentation in January.

The visual aids for his two-hour presentation were created using a beta version of Lighthouse Design's Concurrence software, an alpha version of the NeXTstep 3.0 operating system, and a prerelease version of a NeXTstation Turbo. The setting was stark, with Jobs (solo onstage for nearly two hours) sitting in front of two NeXTstations.

Jobs spent several late nights designing his presentation, writing the text, drawing graphs and diagrams, and scanning artwork.

With a penchant for perfection and making last-minute changes, Jobs served as a perfect example of the benefits of the NeXT platform.

"We would have spent over $50,000 with traditional slides," Jobs explained. "My presentation was a ton better because I was able to create it myself rather than tell a slide maker, who is paid by the hour."

The presentation's style was accidental, according to Jobs. While experimenting with background colors, someone criticized the green he had chosen as looking like a chalkboard. "I realized, 'Yes, I'm giving a chalk talk.' " Then Jobs chose Adobe's Tekton font to make the text look handwritten.